Locked Up
by HP Slash Luv
Summary: Colin didn't always like being a big brother.


**Written For:**

 **Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition:** Round 11 - Captain - Write a slice of life story set on a summer day(s).

 **Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry:** Transfiguration  
Write a fic from the POV of someone in some form of captivity. **Prompt:** "My mother is ashamed of me."

 **Beta'ed by Lexi.**

xXx

 **Locked Up**

It was a hot summer day, a day meant for fun in the sun. But instead of playing, two boys were sitting in the front yard, cross-legged, in the middle of a serious conversation.

Ten-year-old Colin stared at his best friend. "My mother is ashamed of me."

Douglas rolled his eyes. "Don't say that. Your mother loves you."

Colin shook his head. "Maybe she loves me in the way all mothers love their children, but she's also ashamed of me. She wishes I wasn't her son."

Douglas furrowed his brow. "Why do you think that?"

Colin stared at his hands. "Because I'm not as perfect as little Dennis."

X

"Go away, Dennis, I don't want to play with you," Colin angrily yelled.

Dennis' bottom lip quivered as tears formed in his eyes. "But Colin–"

"No! Go Away!" Colin shouted at his annoying little brother, wishing he could just be left alone for once.

Dennis ran into the house, loudly sobbing in misery because of his brother's mean words.

Colin crossed his arm and waited, and like clockwork, he heard his mother's footsteps. "Colin Creevey, you're in big trouble, young man."

X

Colin stared out of the window, looking out at all of the kids playing in the neighborhood. It wasn't fair! He should be out there playing with _them._

Instead, he was captive by his own mother, forced to stay in his room because she didn't like the way he spoke to her precious Dennis.

Colin didn't feel bad about it. Dennis needed to stop being such a tagalong. It was annoying. They were brothers. That didn't mean they had to be friends.

A hard knock on the door sounded. It wasn't the knock Dennis used, so he wisely kept his mouth shut.

When the door opened, his father stepped into his room. "You're mother said you were grounded. What did you do?"

"Made poor Dennis cry," Colin answered with a roll of his eyes.

His dad's face was stern. "Colin, Dennis is your brother. You should treat him better."

"He needs to learn to stay away from me," Colin said with as much ferocity as dared to use with his dad.

"Brothers are for life. You should learn to appreciate that relationship and cherish it."

Colin continued staring out of the window. Douglas was playing with Cindy, and he wished to be with them. "I didn't ask for a brother," he stubbornly said.

"Well, until you learn your lesson, you will be confined to this room."

"That's not fair!" Colin screamed, finally turning away from the window to look at his dad. "It's summer vacation. I'm supposed to spend it having fun with my friends!"

"You should have thought about that _before_ you made your brother cry." He turned around and left the room, closing the door behind him.

"I bet if I cried, no one would care as much," Colin muttered, his hands clenched into fists on his lap as he turned back to the window, watching all of the fun that was happening without him.

X

A week had passed, and Colin was _still_ confined to his room. Both of his parents had tried talking to him to no avail. He didn't understand what the big deal was. Colin was always bullied in school and no one cared enough to punish the bully. Why did Dennis get special treatment?

Douglas had come to his bedroom window yesterday and tried to encourage him to sneak out, but Colin knew if he did so, the punishment would go on even longer.

A tentative knock tapped on his door.

Colin sighed angrily. "Go away, Dennis!"

The door opened and a scared face peeked into his room. "Can I come in?"

Colin grabbed the pillow from his bed and turned towards Dennis. "You obviously don't know what 'go away' means." He threw the pillow at Dennis who dodged it with a squeak.

"Please, Colin, I just want to talk."

Colin glared at him. "It's your fault I can't leave my room. Why would I want to talk to you?"

Dennis' lips began to quiver, the tell-tale sign that he was close to crying. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get you into trouble."

Colin glared at him. "If you weren't such a crybaby, I wouldn't have gotten into trouble in the first place."

"If you weren't mean to me, I wouldn't have cried," Dennis refuted in a small voice.

Colin went back to staring out of the window, mourning his loss of summer play. "Go away."

"I don't know why you hate me," Dennis whispered.

"You want to know why I hate you? Fine, you get everything you want without even trying. You're our parents' favorite, always have to be protected. No one cares that I get teased at school. But if anyone says a bad word to you, they're right away scolded. I might be the firstborn, but I feel like they would have been perfectly happy if I never existed."

"That's not my fault. Do Mum and Dad know you get teased?"

Colin didn't answer. He never said anything, but they should have known. They always know when someone is giving Dennis a hard time at school.

Dennis quietly sat on Colin's bed and stared at him. "I know Mum and Dad would miss you if you weren't here, but even if they wouldn't, I'd miss you. Colin, I love you. You're my big brother. My hero. I look up to you and want to be just like you. I can't imagine what it would be like if you weren't here."

Colin's shoulders lost some of their rigidness, his posture slumping a bit. He was still a little bit put out that it looked like Dennis had it so easy, but perhaps he wasn't as alone as he originally thought. It sounded like Dennis was on his side, so maybe being a big brother wasn't so bad after all.

xXx

(word count: 990)


End file.
